Day 237 – As I build a meditation practice–and yes, “build” is the word that I purposefully use–one breath at a time, one moment to the next, a deep and comforting calm settle over me on most occassions, particularly with the use of a mantra or “dharma” talk.  I hear  and repeat many gentle words:  May I be at ease with this body.  May I be at peace with its frailties, desires, aversions, etc.  And I realize that–if only for an instance–I am really one with myself and, to that matter, all living things and our beautiful Earth.

Today, Rolf writes of this connection, or “reconnection,” explaining:  “Once we begin to reconnect to our own intuition toward health, we can see it and speak to it in others.  This insight, the spiritual connectedness we recognize in others, supports and develops our own.”  Yesterday, coworkers and I had a deep and enlightening conversation about our faiths:  Catholic, pagan, and Seventh Day Adventist.  We have come to know each other over this summer term and despite the polarizing nature of our religions/paths, we have “deconstruct[ed] the disconnection we feel.”

The experience of reconnecting to each other as humans is beautiful. Rolf writes that it is the “infinite diversity of life that masks the underlying unity.”  At work, we are stratified:  we are labeled and known by our ages, our jobs, our departments, our room numbers, our experience, our social group, and our looks.  However, when we come together to work in the empty building with just a few students and staff, we realize our humanity, with its “10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows.”  Rolf contends this is why group yoga practice has such an “unmistakable, potent energy at work,” writing:  “As we breathe into a posture, steady and relaxed, with our attention embracing the totality of the experience, we are awakened to this understanding.  We are all one.”